The Fireballer from Pageland
A new book on the ballplayer with a melodious name
Bygone baseball by C. Philip Francis
After ending his day at the Writing Center at Greenville Tech in Greenville, South Carolina Robert A. “Bob” Nestor picked up both his wife and a package before driving the 130 miles to Pageland where they would deliver a very special book to a very special lady. It was October 4, 2002, and a 91-year-old widow dying of cancer with only days to live. She was Eloise Mungo, the wife of a well-known ballplayer – Van Lingle Mungo – and in the package was a book just off the presses called the Pride of Pageland, an account of Eloise’s deceased husband, Van Lingle Mungo, written by Bob A. Nestor.
Standing beside the sickbed of the elderly and ailing woman were family members along with the two Nestors. When Bob and his wife were ready to say good-bye Mrs. Munger’s arms were holding a copy of the book with an warm expression on her face that showed a complete awareness of the situation. As author Nestor says, “She was able to see the completed book, but greatly regret that I could not finish with a sufficient time for her to read it as she died the following Monday, October 7, 2002.”
Almost immediately after Van Lingle Mungo was born in Pageland, South Carolina on June 8, 1911 the proud father put a baseball in the infant’s right hand saying, “I’ve got a pitcher.” He was right. Dad had played semi-pro, and spent many hours playing catch with his son. It paid off as the younger Mungo never lost a game in four years while pitching for the Pageland High School, and became one of the fastest hurlers ever. Student mathematicians at West Point once measured his fastball at 100 mph.
At 6’2” the lean Mungo delivered the ball with a high kick, and was considered “mean and wild with a ferocious temper.” Mungo had 14 years in the Brooklyn Dodger and New York Giant uniforms from 1931 through 1945 with his best seasons from 1932 through 1936. His National League contemporaries were such dominant throwers as Dizzy Dean, Paul Derringer, Lon Warneke, and Carl Hubbell.
I well remember those heroic baseball names as I was developing into a young baseball fan - especially the Dodger pitcher with the unusual and exciting moniker - and I was not the only one. Writer Bob Nestor describes his first memories of Van Lingle Mungo, and much later when the seed for his book was planted and how it was nourished.
“I first knew of Van Lingle Mungo when I was a pre-adolescent living in Springfield, Massachusetts was back in the early 1940’s. He was on his last leg with the Dodgers, and had not yet gone to the New York Giants when I saw his photo on baseball cards. I was too young to get in on all the VLM excitement in the 1930’s. Brooklyn was my team, and Dolph Camilli and Pistol Pete Reiser were my heroes.
“In 1984 I brought Tommy Lasorda (Note: Hall of Famer and Los Angeles Dodger manager for 20 years.) to Greenville to speak at a fund-raiser for Boys Home of the South. I also lined up some active and inactive ball players to be at our dinner. Jim Rice, Al Dark, and Van Lingle Mungo were among those present.
“I became acquainted with Van and Eloise, and they stayed overnight in our home. Then a few months later my wife, Peggy, and I rendezvoused in Lancaster (SC) to have lunch with the Mungo pair when Van told me he would be going to a baseball card signing convention to be held in New York City in a few weeks. He never made it. In February if 1985 I received a phone call giving me the news that had just come over the wire about Van Lingle Mungo’s death. A heart attack had struck him down.
“We went to the funeral in Pageland where Mungo’s widow, Eloise, expressed to me her desire to have a book written about her famous baseball husband. I was exceedingly busy with other things at that time, but toward the end of the 1990’s I contacted her and said I was game to tackle the assignment.
“I have basically had to work out of literally hundreds of things that have been written about VLM as well conversations with Al Lopez, a Hall of Fame catcher now in his 90’s and living in Tampa (FL), and Ace Adams, a teammate of Van.
“The book establishes a talent that VLM had on the mound – a talent that wasn’t fully paid off because of his alcohol problem that caused him to have some negative episodes in his career.”
I read the warm and entertaining Pride of Pageland on three airplanes taking my wife and I from Detroit to Hawaii, and recommend that any baseball fan add it to their sports library. Whether the reader is a Dodger fan or not, Mungo’s story is on a man with much baseball ability, but also with many personal and family problems that kept him from becoming one of the best pitchers of that era. In the background is Eloise who stays with a husband in spite of his drinking and embarrassing bizarre off-the-field episodes. It is a story of baseball during the Golden Age of Sports, easy to read, and not burdened with statistics. The reader will enjoy the many photos of Van, his family, other players, and newspaper clippings.
A copy of Pride of Pageland can be ordered by credit card at: russosbooks@bak.rr.com in Bakersfield, CA at the price is $12.00 plus $1.50 for postage. For those who would like to order an autographed book write to: Bob Nestor at 11 Timberlake Dr., Greenville, SC 29615-1728 or contact him at: runran@juno.com